Vikings brought first native American to Europe

Well, the fact that they were speaking English would indicate each thought the other was a foreigner otherwise they would be speaking Swedish. Also, they were in a Finnish airline. Saab, you surprise me sometimes.

We might think we are both foreigners, but soon will find out that we are both Swedish. Small things give away in our language. That has happened to me several times. I will pronounce a Swedish name: city, street or what ever in Swedish. The way I as a Swede would pronounce the word Ja. Most people say Ja and breathe out. We Swedes breath in when we say Ja.
Do you really think that just Swedes and Finns travel on a Finnish airline?

I stood about two feet from them and heard their entire conversation. I just didn't restate it here because it is readily understood.

They were having the sort of introductory small talk conversation most strangers have, especially in a situation where they are forced to talk to each other. AMong the questions they asked each other is where are you from. They even pinpointed the Stockholm streets on which they lived.

As I said, one man had no discernible accent.

I had a friend with a very "typically" Swedish name, whose mother moved to California after a divorce, when he was just 13. I once commented that that would explain why he spoke the American language as a native would. He corrected me to say that many Swedes, especially well-educated Swedes living in the Stockholm area, speak the American language almost faultlessly. He then said that, for example, Swedes from Upsala will speak the language properly, but with an accent which gives them away. (I don't know, maybe he had a thing about people from Upsala.)

When i knew him, i was the head bartender in a little bar in a university town, and he was one of the regulars. One evening, two jokers from Upsala showed up, and Magnus got very excited. As he spoke to them, he fell into a Swedish accent, which got thicker and thicker--at one point, he called out to the barteneder, Jimmy: "Yimmy, Yimmy, more beers!" Maybe he was just being polite to the boys from Upsala.

I met a forest ranger in the giant sequoia groves of Yosemite. She was a middle-aged woman.
She reminded me strongly of a female watch-leader I had met aboard a tall ship sailing out of Oslo. Reminded me, not only in physical characteristics (there was a marked age difference) but also in mannerisms, stance etc. I asked her, was her family background Scandinavian. Yes, she said, Danish, how did I know? The watch-leader comes from Denmark.

Well, you can always tell a Dane . . . you just can't tell 'em much.

That is really funny - bet he did have something against people from Upsala.
I think many people - especially we from down south - dislike a certain Stockholm dialect spoken within some areas in Stockholm.

Down south? Are you from Scania, or one of the formerly Danish provinces?

I am from one of the former Danish provinces.
Another reason for Stockholmer to call us provincials - meaning it negativly

I've heard that the Scandinavian tendency to have unaccented English is because movies aren't dubbed, they're subtitled - whereas in Germany, for example, English is studied just as much but their English language movies are dubbed.

The cooking is too heavy and flavorless, too.

They like Nigella?

That and spaetzle . . .

You should not believe anything you hear (I know you don't..).

If it was true, it would happen in many other countries that have undubbed movies.

Yet, it doesn't..

Have to admit I heard it from a German travelling in Australia who thought her English was terribly accented - I didn't, I just feel sheepish that I don't have anywhere near that level of competence in another language.

Some countries really push the learning of English - those I've mentioned, France too (I'm sure there's more - the Netherlands?) - and they're the ones we should compare re the dubbed/undubbed theory. France, Spain and Italy dub.

Maybe it's all shite anyway - some native speakers are near incomprehensible because of their accents (yes geordies, I'm pointing at you). I knew a Chinese guy who had an American accent from working in the US embassy in Beijing, and there's a small pool of Singaporeans with Cheshire accents courtesy of a colleague. Maybe Swedes natural accent is not that removed from 'standard/stage' English. Apart from the odd 'Yimmy!'

It is not only English speaking films that subtitled - it is all foreign films.
The school system in teaching foreign languages is also different in Scandinavia and in Germany.

Do mean Scandinavian or German cooking?

Almost every country in Europe pushes the learning of English, with diverse results.

But it's becoming the lingua franca..

I'd say that the acculturation does more for mastering the English language than anything else.

The intonation of Danish and Swedish spoken in the south is closer to English than some parts of Scandinavia.
R´s in Danish are pronounced very much like in English. In southern Sweden we roll them in the throat, in middle Sweden especially around Stockholm - including Upsala they roll them against the frontteeth.